For Olena Palaysuk, family has been the key to her success as a highly accomplished scientist at Ames National Laboratory. Her parents encouraged her to get into materials science and chemistry. Her mother, also a chemist, was her inspiration, and her husband and children are the support system behind the scenes.
Olena Palasyuk
“My family, my husband and kids, are my inspiration and strength to achieve anything in my life,” Olena said. “They always support and encourage me in all situations and teach me how to handle any situation at any time. Through thick and thin, my family has walked with me shoulder to shoulder.”
Olena is a member of multiple research teams at Ames National Laboratory and its contributing institutions, which are part of the Critical Materials Institute (CMI). Her expertise in materials synthesis, magnetic measurements, scanning electron microscopy, thermal analysis, and X-ray diffraction has enabled the development of techniques to understand and control materials processing in a wide range of materials, ranging from critical materials to high-temperature metallic alloys.
Ames National Laboratory is the only Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory located on the campus of a major research university, Iowa State University. This research environment presents several opportunities and challenges for conducting cutting-edge research. Its proximity to the university campus provides a unique teaching and workforce development environment, allowing undergraduate and graduate students to engage in multidisciplinary research while still taking classes. However, this also poses challenges, as it means overseeing and training numerous users.
Olena with her husband and son at the 2023 R&D 100 gala event. Photo courtesy of Bob Hoffman Photography & Video
The bulk of this training and oversight falls on research technologists like Palasyuk. More users also mean more frequent training and a higher potential for failures or the need to recalibrate research equipment. In addition to conducting many research tasks, Olena oversees the X-ray diffraction equipment and trains new users in safe operations and how to collect data for a wide range of sample chemistries and morphologies, from bulk samples to fine air-sensitive powders. She also helps train users in the routine operation of the equipment and how to analyze their data.
As a team member on multiple CMI projects, she is involved in a science-based approach of looking for new, undiscovered, rare-earth lean, transition metal-rich complex compounds with enhanced magnetic properties or new ferromagnets containing abundant and relatively inexpensive elements. The goal is to discover cost-effective and environmentally sound materials for energy, electronic, and transportation applications. This would contribute to the deployment of materials that can substitute for today’s rare-earth-based magnets. This work has resulted in more than seven publications in research journals and two patents over the last four years. She has also been actively involved in Ames’ alloy design efforts.
In addition, Palasyuk has been the Safety Coordinator for the CMI, acting as a liaison between the research group and the laboratory’s Environmental, Health, and Safety division. These duties include organizing and participating in safety walkthroughs, helping research groups prepare for periodic reviews of their research activities, and conducting emergency awareness training. Recently, she participated in the Safety Culture Investment Program Pilot (SCIPP) — 2022. This is a DOE Safety Culture Improvement Panel (SCIP) Monitoring, Means, and Methods Working Group (MMM WG) to pilot invest in metric development and data collection for aspects of safety culture to identify and measure behaviors and attributes that may contribute to the development and maintenance of a robust and effective safety culture.
